Pick-up trucks are favored by consumers due to the cargo carrying capabilities and flexibility afforded by the pick-up truck bed. A wide variety of different types of cargo may be conveniently transported in the bed. Different types of cargo may be secured with different specialized straps with hooks, bungee cords with hooks, tie downs with ratchet tighteners, and the like. Some types of cargo may be tied down with a rope.
Ropes are readily available and may be cut to size but normally it is not desirable to cut a rope because a shorter rope may be less useful than a longer rope. Using a rope to tie down cargo to a loop or ring may necessitate threading the rope through the ring and tightening the rope at each tie down location. To securely tie down some types of cargo with a rope, it may be necessary to tie the rope down by threading a rope through each loop which may be very time-consuming. At each tie-down location the rope must be pulled until the rope is tight or the cargo could shift in transit.
Pick-up truck bed cargo tie-downs have been developed that are complex structures requiring assembly of multiple parts. Stamped sheet metal parts, injection molded parts, or cast parts must be assembled together to provide a tie down apparatus that is clipped to a receptacle provided on the floor or walls of the pick-up truck bed. Such complex pick-up truck tie downs are relatively complicated to manufacture and are costly accessories.
Forces applied to a tie-down cleat are transferred to the base of the tie-down cleat that abuts a wall or the floor of the pick-up truck bed. A small base applies the force to a smaller part of the wall or floor and may potentially result in distortion of the surface of the wall or floor.
This disclosure is directed to solving the above problems and other problems as summarized below.